Special places: Australia

A map of massacres

Colonial frontier massacres in eastern Australia 1788–1872 is an online map that plots the sites where massacres are known to have been perpetrated.

From the moment the British invaded Australia in 1788 they encountered active resistance from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander owners and custodians of the lands. In the frontier wars which continued until the 1960s mas­sacres became a defining strategy to eradicate that res­ist­ance. As a result thousands of Aboriginal men women and children were killed. This site presents a map, timelines, and information about massacres in Eastern Australia from 1794 when the first massacre was recorded until 1872. Only events for which sufficient information remains from the past and can be verified are included. The map also includes information about the six known massacres of British colonists in Eastern Australia in the same period.—​from the introduction to the website

This site comes with a warning that it contains information about acts of violence that may be distressing. Yes, the in­form­a­tion is distressing​—​but necessary.

Jackie Chan at the Old Museum

I don’t watch many martial arts action films, but this segment on YouTube caught my attention. It is set in the Old Museum Bu­il­ding in Brisbane, and uses the spaces of the exhibition hall for some exciting action. The exhibition hall was built in 1891, and was the home of the Queensland Museum from 1899 until 1986. I am doing some work on the building at the moment, which adds to my interest.»more»

Minutes to midnight

With these photographs from a journey across Australia, Trent Parke has made an intense, autobiographical piece, specific in time and place. It’s presented as a web slide show with narrative voice-over. As the intro says:

The work is both a document of a changing nation, uneasy with its identity and its place in the world, and a work of fiction which when combined suggests the build-up, aftermath and rebirth of an apocalyptic world. In its making, Trent pupated from documenting an emotional black and white world to one of color.

Redcliffe remembers the war years 1939-1949

Broken link

Redcliffe is a coastal town north of Brisbane. In this website the local public library presents short spoken recollections by 17 residents. It evokes the life of a small town and its rural hinterland, affected by the Second World War,

Burarra gathering

Broken link

Burarra gathering: sharing Indigenous knowledge introduces children to the people of Arnhem Land in northern Australia. Danaja and his grandfather Wala Wala will show you around, and explain their country and their way of life. This is the first online exhibition from Questacon (the national science and technology centre in Canberra), produced in collaboration with the Burarra people.

Picture Queensland

6,000 images from the John Oxley Library photo collection went online this month. These images show just a glimpse of the material in the State Library of Queensland’s historical collection. The library promises to add more to the online database as it continues the work of digitisation and cataloguing.

Brisbane’s living heritage

This is a tourist guide to 29 heritage locations around Brisbane, my home city. I feel connected, in a fond way, to most of these places. I cringe at some of the blurb on the Brisbane’s living heritage website, but it would be churlish for me to be too critical. I hope you enjoy it.

Our house

Here historian Susan Marsden has assembled stories of 42 houses, collected during a larger study of Australian housing. A range of ordinary houses from around the country is represented — using biographies by historians with local credentials. The bios are well-informed and readable. There are photographs, stories and plans to locate each house in its time and place.

Andrew Nemeth’s Sydney

The Haberfield Association

Web site of a community group dedicated to protecting their Sydney suburb. Haberfield, established in 1901, is Australia’s best-known garden suburb, with a consistent character of broad leafy streets and detached brick houses.

Vanishing Queensland

Broken link

A travelling exhibition by architectural photographer Richard Stringer. Richard presents buildings that have disappeared since he photographed them, evoking the shift in the visual character of Queensland since the 1960s. The exhibition was mounted by the National Trust and is showing in regional galleries​—​the web site tells you where and when. Enjoy it here, but try to see it in the flesh.

The Queensland house

Queensland picture theatres

Broken link

A database and gazetteer of cinemas outside Brisbane. An alphabetical list of towns is linked to historical notes and anecdotes about cinemas extant, adapted or destroyed. The information was collected by Professor Julie James Bailey of the Queensland Studies Centre at Griffith University.

AHC photographic database

Digital images of places in the Register of the National Estate, from the collection of the Australian Heritage Commission. There is a powerful and easy search function, and images are shown in thumbnail or screen display sizes. Images are available for use on terms explained on the site.

Urban adventures

Broken link

This web site is maintained by the Melbourne Drain Team, a bunch of adventurers who secretly explore outlandish places above and below the ground​—​a garish but engaging web site, linked to a ring of others around the world